About Us

Dianomi Therapeutics (Madison, WI) was formed in 2017 to develop the Mineral Coated Microparticle (MCM) technology invented by our scientific founders. This technology has the potential to improve efficacy and safety profiles of a wide range of drug molecules, and was licensed from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). We are pursuing a pipeline targeting rheumatology & autoimmune diseases for our own portfolio and establishing partnerships with biotech and pharmaceutical companies in other areas.

Our Team

Mr. Kurokawa has been a professional investor focused on healthcare for over 25 years. He was a Senior Portfolio manager at INVESCO Funds Group, in charge of the firm’s healthcare funds with $1.5 billion in assets under management and over $100 million in private venture investments. He co-founded and was the principal portfolio manager of ProMed Management, one of the first healthcare crossover healthcare hedge funds investing in both private and public companies. He later founded BlackRiver Capital Management, a healthcare investment advisory and corporate consulting firm. He has sat on the Board of Directors of several private and public healthcare companies and currently is a Board member of Eirion Therapeutics, Inc., a private aesthetic company.

William L. Murphy, PhD, is the Harvey D. Spangler Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Orthopedics & Rehabilitation, and Director of the Forward BIO Institute at the University of Wisconsin. He has invented and developed multiple new classes of biomaterials inspired by the materials found in nature. Murphy’s research group has used new biomaterials to manufacture medical devices, human cells, and human tissues. These products are now being applied to emerging applications in regenerative medicine. He has published more than 170 scientific manuscripts, 10 book chapters, and 2 books, filed over 50 patents, and co-founded multiple start-up companies. He has received awards that include the National Science Foundation Career Award, the Wisconsin Vilas Associate Award, the H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, and induction as a Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Martin Ostrowski, JD

COO & GC, Co-Founder

Mr. Ostrowski is an entrepreneur and attorney with over 15 years' experience in the life science, biotech and medical device industries. His targeted experience includes deal-structuring, corporate development, operations and intellectual property and commercialization strategy. Previously he served as director of intellectual property and business development at Cellscript, practiced law at Sughrue Mion, PLLC and led business development operations at Arteriocyte and Arteriocyte Medical Systems (acquired by Isto Biologics). He co-founded Vascugen, a regenerative medicine company developing advanced therapies to treat incurable vascular disease conditions. He holds a B.S.E. in bioengineering, an M.S. in biochemistry, a Juris Doctorate and is a registered USPTO patent attorney and licensed through the D.C. Bar.

Dr. Clements was a research assistant and doctoral student in the Murphy Group Bioinspired Materials Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focused on developing delivery platforms for biologically active proteins to control inflammation in orthopedic applications. She received her B.S. in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been a patent engineering intern at Quarles and Brady LLC, a summer student at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Materials Science Division, a teaching assistant and instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a student ambassador for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

Kurtis Knapp, PhD

Co-Founder

Dr. Knapp has advised many biotech start-ups with intellectual property and is currently Senior Director of Intellectual Property for Siluria Technologies, a private company focused on the conversion of natural gas to liquid fuels and chemicals. He is a registered Patent Agent and worked at Wilson Sonini Goodrich and Rosati drafting patent applications and office actions for genomics and technology companies. He has founded multiple clean technology companies, including Hyrax Energy, Inc., which developed the technology to process cellulosic biomass to sugars and chemicals with ionic liquids. Dr. Knapp has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Carter Cliff is an entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in biotech, recently focused on induced-pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based regenerative medicine. He is a founder of RPRD Diagnostics, Opsis Therapeutics, and Vascugen where he currently serves at CEO. Previously he held various positions at leading platform technology companies including Cellular Dynamics (acquired by FUJIFILM), Meso Scale Diagnostics (privately held), Life Technologies (acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific), and Ingenuity Systems (acquired by Qiagen).